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Why? Because [email protected] is holding it's annual one-day event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, bringing together brilliant minds to discuss our trending future. These discussions are sure to have a lasting impact on the minds that will then shape this future.

I have been invited to attend this event as a #NewWayToWork Futurist, and when IBM asked me if I would be interested in writing an article on behalf of the event, I was stoked to do it. I have a lot of thoughts to share on the topic of the day.

This year's event theme is Necessity & Invention. We are all familiar with the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention," and this event intends to pose a deeper question... With all of the opportunity that exponential growth in information technology opens up for mankind, and with all of the data generated, collected, and swirling around us, how do you know what is truly essential? New discoveries establish a new sense of what we deem necessary to our lives at an unprecedented accelerated pace.

Certainly, this expanse in opportunity alone will spawn inventions that we have yet to even dream of. And just as certainly, it will compel us to decipher what is truly important for the advancement of mankind in regard to ethics and human relationships.

When I think of some of the topics to be discussed, I get excited and feel so lucky to be able to witness these discussions and ideas that forge our future together.

I am especially looking forward to hearing what Maria Dubovitskaya, of IBM Research in Zurich, has to say about data being the new currency, and how to protect it. She is working on designing cryptographic protocols for privacy protection and applying them in practice. As many of you know I have a high level of respect for the work that Katryna Dow is doing in the field of data sovereignty with her company Meeco. This subject of data privacy and protection is absolutely fascinating to me, and I am looking forward to Maria's talk.

Given the trillion sensor global ecosystem that we are embarking on, it is equally intriguing to think of the algorithms and technologies that will sprout from the data of normal everyday human living and interaction with each other and our surroundings. The data mining insight we will gain surrounding emotion, humor, and happiness, as well as revealing commonalities of faults and intentions, are sure to spark a depth of empathy between people as a whole. I am hoping from the topics of their talks, Melanie Butcher, "Empathy: The Inventor's Creed." and Vinith Misra, "The Algorithms of Humor." will be diving deep into these ideas!

We are truly living in the greatest time period of discovery for mankind. I urge everyone who understands this and feels this same level of excitement for it, to join me in attendance for [email protected] on October 15th! For all the juicy details, visit their website: IBM.com/TED.